TIDMPGM

RNS Number : 8252V

Phoenix Global Mining Ltd

11 April 2019

Phoenix Global Mining Ltd

Ticker LSE AIM: PGM, OTCQX: PGMLF / Sector: Mining

11 April 2019

Phoenix Global Mining Ltd

('Phoenix' or the 'Company')

Nigel Maund Report highlights the potential at the Empire Mine

Phoenix Global Mining Ltd (AIM: PGM, OTCQX: PGMLF), the North American-focused base and precious metals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the publication of a report by Nigel Maund, Consultant Economic Geologist to Phoenix.

Mr Maund is familiar with the Company's Empire Mine property, having previously reported on it in 2015. He visited the site in March 2019 to analyse the property in more detail, including a review of the drill core from the Company's 2017 and 2018 drilling campaigns, as well as earlier drilling programmes.

His full report is on the Company's website at www.pgmining.com/research

The key findings of the report are:

-- He confirms that the Empire Mine comprises a world class polymetallic ore system containing tungsten and molybdenum as well as copper, gold, silver and zinc.

-- The mine is sited on a major north south structure with some 5 km of geologic strike. This compares with 1 km referred to in the PEA (Preliminary Economic Assessment) on the heap leach SX-EW copper project published by the Company in 2018.

-- Exploration has to date focused on the near surface oxides in the proposed open pit as they represent potential near-term revenue. Mr Maund is of the opinion that perhaps only 1% to 2% of the ore system has been tested to date.

-- Exploration has so far ignored the potential much larger copper/precious metal and base metal sulphide beneath and along strike from the open pit. The potential of this sulphide ore system is of the order of tens of millions of tonnes, and it is almost certainly amenable to underground trackless bulk mining techniques.

-- In Mr Maund's view, the Empire system bears some geological similarities to the World Class 1 category Antamina Mine in Peru, which is the largest porphyry - endoskarn polymetallic deposit in the world (https://www.teck.com/operations/peru/operations-5619/antamina/).

Dennis Thomas, chief executive, commented:

"I was pleased to receive Nigel's report which concurs with our view that the Empire Mine is a potential world class porphyry and integral skarn system with near surface oxide zone and a major sulphide system beneath it. It also endorses our expansion of the property to the north by staking additional claims over the past 18 months. This has given us a fivefold increase in the strike length of the mineralised zones and the property now covers 8.9 square miles.

"It also confirms the presence of tungsten, which was mined below the open pit in 1942 before the underground mine closed. This metal is on the list of 35 minerals deemed critical to U.S. National Security and the Economy, with 90% of the world supply of tungsten coming from China and Russia. The current price of tungsten is around four times the price of copper at $25,000 a tonne.

"We are preparing an updated measured, indicated and inferred NI 43-101 compliant resource, incorporating all previous drilling results as well as those from the 29,228 feet (8,909 metres) 2018 drilling campaign, the results of which we intend to announce by the end of April."

Nigel Maund

Nigel Maund BSc (Hons) Lond., MSc, DIC, MBA, F.Aus.IMM, F.AIG, F.SEG, FGS, MMSA has 45 years industry experience as a Professional Economic Geologist, whose consulting work has covered a broad range of metalliferous mineral deposits globally. Amongst his achievements, as Senior Geologist on the Olympic Dam project in Australia for BP Minerals, he played a key role in the understanding of the geology and mineralisation of the world class copper/gold/uranium/ project. He has worked with RTZ Metals, Cliffs Natural Resources and many junior sector exploration and mining companies in both the discovery and evaluation phases of significant projects, including the discovery of the Geita gold project in Tanzania now owned and operated by AngloGold Ashanti, and the evaluation and exploration of metalliferous projects in France with BRGM. Much of his work has been on the detailed early-stage evaluation of gold, base metal and tin & tungsten skarns and in porphyry copper & molybdenum deposits in France, Spain, Romania, the Philippines, Indonesia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, the USA and Australia. Many of these projects have close geological similarities to the Company's Empire Mine Ore system.

Under the guidelines established by the Australian Institution of Mining & Metallurgy and Australasian Institution of Geoscientists, he qualifies as a "Competent Person". He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy, the American Society of Economic Geologists and the Geological Society of London, as well as being a Member of the American Society of Mineralogists. He also owns 51, 538 shares in Phoenix, representing 0.13% of the Company

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

For further information please visit www.pgmining.com or contact:

 
 Phoenix Global Mining   Dennis Thomas / Richard Wilkins        Tel: +44 7827 
  Ltd                                                          290 849 (Dennis) 
                                                                      / 
                                                               +44 7590 216 657 
                                                                  (Richard) 
 SP Angel                Lindsay Mair / Caroline Rowe          Tel: +44 20 3470 
  (Nominated Adviser                                                       0470 
  and Joint Broker) 
                        -----------------------------------  ------------------ 
 Brandon Hill Capital    Jonathan Evans / Oliver Stansfield    Tel: +44 20 3463 
  (Joint Broker)                                                           5000 
                        -----------------------------------  ------------------ 
 Blytheweigh             Tim Blythe / Camilla Horsfall         Tel: +44 20 7138 
  (Financial PR)          / Megan Ray                                      3204 
                        -----------------------------------  ------------------ 
 

Notes

Phoenix's flagship project is a brownfield, past producing, copper, gold, silver, zinc and tungsten underground mine, the Empire Mine near Mackay in Idaho. Phoenix acquired an 80% interest in the property in 2015. Based on a total of 315 drill holes a NI 43-101 compliant oxide resource was completed in late 2017. A PEA (preliminary economic assessment) for an open pit heap leach solvent extraction and electrowinning ("SX-EW") mine was completed in April 2018 with a design capacity of 8,000 tonnes of copper cathode a year. In June 2018 a campaign consisting of RC and diamond drilling was started. This programme was designed to upgrade and increase the oxide reserves, provide samples for ongoing metallurgical testwork, geotechnical and hydrological studies and condemnation drilling for the heap leach pad site, waste dump and plant site. At the same time the consultants were appointed to complete a NI 43-101 compliant Bankable Feasibility Study ("BFS"). The lead consultant is RPM Global who are supported by Samuel Engineering, both based in Denver, Colorado. Cascade Earth Sciences of Pocatello, Idaho have been working on environmental and permitting issues since 2016 and form part of the BFS team. Golder Associates are designing the heap leach pad and ponds, and Call and Nicholas are carrying out the open pit slope stability studies.

At Empire, it is estimated that only 5% to 7% of the potential ore system has been explored to date and, accordingly, there is significant opportunity to increase the resource through phased exploration; the current resource relates to the oxide resource only, which remains open along strike and does not include the deeper, higher grade sulphides. In addition, Phoenix has increased the claim area from 813 acres at the time of its acquisition to 5,717 acres, mainly to the northwest and west, and in so doing has increased the potential for additional oxide and sulphide resources to a total strike length of approximately 5.38-kilometres including another brownfield mine, the Horseshoe Mine, which is now within the property boundary and more than 30 historical shafts, adits on the newly acquired Windy Devil claims.

In 2018 the Company completed 8,909 metres of drilling at Empire. The analytical and geological data from this 93-hole drilling program and 106 channel surface sampling programme is currently being evaluated and modelled in preparation for a Q2 2019 updated resource calculation as part of the ongoing BFS for the initial open pit mine. Phoenix staff and consultants are systematically assessing and evaluating the recent data and incorporating this data into the existing database which includes all of the information used in the November 2017 resource estimate and in the April 2018 Preliminary Economic Assessment.

As reported throughout late 2018, mineralised drill hole intercepts were prevalent in multiple directions outside of the previously modelled open pit mine, particularly to the north in the newly discovered Red Star area. The 2018 drilling programme obtained numerous high-grade interceptions, including grades of 12.05% copper, 20% lead, 5.83% zinc, 2.52 g/t gold and 580 g/t silver, all of which will be included in an updated resource estimate expected in Q2 2019. Known mineralisation now covers a strike length of 5.38 kilometres within the Company's claim block. The April 2018 pit design covered 1.0 kilometres of this. The Company continues to believe that the Empire Mine Project and the surrounding claims holdings represents a major mineralised system.

The Company also holds two prospective cobalt properties in Idaho, US, which are located north of the Empire Mine. These are situated close to the town of Cobalt and are close to projects being advanced by Canadian junior miners, including eCobalt Solutions and First Cobalt. Fieldwork, consisting of mapping and sampling and locating drill holes for the 2019 drilling programme, has been completed.

With a management team that has successfully constructed, commissioned and operated mines and low risk, mining-friendly jurisdictions with excellent infrastructure, Phoenix is looking to fulfil its ambitions to become a mid-tier base metal, precious metal and cobalt production company, offering exposure to three high value and high demand metals with compelling demand/supply fundamentals.

More details on the Company, its assets and its objectives can be found on PGM's website at www.pgmining.com

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

END

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